My SPY Put Credit Spread Trades For December 2018

Wow! What an unfortunate month for Put Credit Spreads. Afraid this month returned all my yearly gains and then some. A bit of a disappointing way to end the year. We know months like this will happen. Big drawdowns are part of the overall strategy. The key is to take advantage when times are good to build up a stockpile of reserves.

Ticker

Type

Spread

Expire Date

Open Date

Closed Date

Open Credit

Closed Debit

Profit / Loss

SPY

Put

250/252

12/14/2018

11/23/18

12/03/18

$0.26

$0.03

13.22%

SPY

Put

250/252

12/14/2018

12/06/18

12/12/18

$0.25

$0.03

12.57%

SPY

Put

249/251

12/21/2018

11/05/18

12/21/18

$0.23

$0.00

-100%

SPY

Put

260/262

12/21/2018

11/08/18

12/21/18

$0.21

$0.00

-100%

SPY

Put

248/250

12/31/2018

11/19/18

12/31/18

$0.23

$1.26

-58.18%

After months like this are done, and once I am done soaking my sorrows in whiskey (clearly not the expensive stuff) I typically find time to reflect. I often learn to appreciate losing months like this -- They are humbling. After many profitable months, it is easy to convince yourself this strategy can't fail. As a result, every few weeks I make a point of pulling a report just to see the months with massive losses. Very good to keep this in perspective. I do this via Options Cafe's Reports of course.

One thing to note. The trades above that had a closing debit of $0.00 and 100% loss I let expire. I just could not find a good exit point.